


Morning Rises

by Albatrossqueen



Series: Fractions of Light [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-05 13:16:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4181208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Albatrossqueen/pseuds/Albatrossqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hunter is away on a trip and gets a phone call.<br/>Mostly, he worries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_It’s too hot._ Was the first thing that crossed Hunter’s mind when he woke up, and in trying to turn over, his brain felt fit to remind him he was in fact **not** at home, and that was a Bad Idea. His eyes opened in the dark, flecks of early dawn creeping through the bottom of the blinds, and the clock only reading a bit after five in the morning. He might have given up on activity military pursuits, but family ties were family ties no matter how loosened due to … other circumstances, and while doing contract work with the Department of Defense wouldn’t have been his first choice, he couldn’t beat their health plan. Something he desperately needed at the moment.

Or rather, Sebastian did.

And before he let the thought wander too far, he pushed it out, and focused on getting ready for what was sure to be a very, very long run that morning.

**###**

Hunter hadn't been gone that long, not really. His work kept him mostly distracted, and while he'd told Sebastian he could call him if he needed to, he'd surprised him by only doing it once. It had been a short, somewhat strained conversation as he remembered it.

It was maybe about eleven in the morning, and Hunter was shifting through a string of tangled geospacial data when he heard his cellphone go off on a very specific ringtone. Something he didn't even hesitate to pick up, even while working, half spinning around to face away from the monitor he was working on in the process.

“... Allo?”

“Hey Basti.” Hunter replied, voice soft and low, growing slightly worried under the surface. “Are you doing alright?”

“For some value of alright maybe.” And there was just a little bit of shuffling, oh Hunter couldn't hear it, but he could see it in his head easy enough as Sebastian continued. “Umm, the tutor for my braille is here I thought I should call you and tell you. And stuff.”

Hunter briefly glanced at the time. He'd nearly forgotten about that. “They're there to help you, we talked about this.”

“I know, I know. I'll try and behave, but only because you asked.” A pause, and a heartbeat. Sebastian voice tapering off from something light. “I feel weird using my phone.”

Hunter only smiled a little, he could hear the nervousness in Sebastian voice, and while he wanted to reassure him that everything would be alright, he also couldn't exactly reach through the phone and hold him, let alone touch him even in the small ways that ended to make him relax now. “Does your phone work with voice commands?”

“I... have no idea. Even if it did, I don't have a screen-reader for it. It's not a computer.”

 _Yes it is._ Hunter added in his head, nearly rolling his eyes. Sebastian was brilliant in a lot of ways, but the intricacies of smart phone programing was always a little beyond him. As long as he could send pictures and watch youtube, right? Hunter almost wanted to laugh. Because that was something he was sure, if he **was** at home, he could fix in a matter of minutes. He was pretty sure most phones came with 'accessibility' menus now.

“Ask your tutor about it, maybe they can help you set it up.”

“Yeah... I don't know.”

And what Hunter heard was _I'm scared._ Or maybe more accurately _I don't know how to be venerable with people I don't know._

“I'll be home soon.”

“ **Please.** _”_

Hunter glanced around very briefly to make sure nothing important was going on around him, or on the monitor, turning just a second to double check it was where he left it and hadn't changed, before leaning down slightly and running a hand through his hair. He couldn't do this over a phone of all things.

“Do you need me?”

“I always need you, stupid.”

“You know what I mean.”

He could hear just lightly a small almost _humming_ noise muffled through the phone, as if he was thinking. “Maybe, but I don't think I'm at Code Orange yet or anything. Umm though I have to go, because _learning_.”

“It'll be good for you, I'll be home soon.”

And Sebastian hadn't even bothered to say much else to him before hanging up his end of the phone. Hunter felt a little bit miffed, and tried to ignore the small, sad-sharp pain in the bottom of his chest from it, but he did have his own work to do as well. Now it was just a matter of if he could bother to concentrate on it.

**###**

As promised, Hunter was hardly gone much longer. Just two days from their phone call, but he kept thinking of it on the way back because there wasn't much else to think about. Well, there was, but it was things like, how was he going to get three to five _thousand_ dollars for a keyboard that Sebastian could actually use now, or where in the world was he even suppose to order braille books if he wanted or needed those? Was he going to have to label every spice jar in the cabinet with an embosser so if Sebastian wanted to try cooking again, so he wouldn't mix things up because they smelled too much the same? _'There's more than one type of mint, Clarington_ ' was certainly an argument he'd heard before, and was not looking forward to if **neither** of them could tell the difference now without tasting every jar of whatever was stuffed in their mixed up pantry.

Better just to be worried about why he hadn't called again. It was... much safer, and perhaps in past years, more familiar territory.

**###**

Sooner that perhaps even Hunter thought, he was standing in front of his own door, and really it was, because it was _his_ apartment first, fumbling with his key and for some reason having an odd feeling about what he might find on the other side. Hopefully, Sebastian had found something productive to do while he was gone beyond just moping about and getting the telly stuck on the static channel by accidentally turning it off the HD receiver, or constantly tripping over Clair – his newer cat – as constantly as he had the first few days.

Opening the door, Hunter was meet with, nothing actually, turning his head in, he felt his eyes narrow. Where was his cat at least? But on seeing nothing about to dart out the door in a furry fluff of white-brown splotches, Hunter felt as if he could at least enter the room.

The 'entrance' itself was small, bordered on one side by the open kitchen, and the other by a closet, and hardly that much space forwards before you were basically in the dinner / living room. He left most of his things in front of the closet, and only briefly stopped at the kitchen counter to leave his keys there and the small bundle of flowers he'd gotten by way of distracting his brain at the florist. A mix of daffodils and star jasmine, interesting easy to identity smells, and very _unique_ shape. He hoped at least a little bit that Sebastian might find something amusing in being able to tell what they were by touch alone.

But first he had to find where he'd wandered off to with his cat.

He hadn't heard the water on, which really only left a narrow hallway and three other rooms, or, Hunter glanced forwards toward the widows at the back of the living room which actually lead to the tiniest balcony perhaps humanly possible, outside. Which didn't seem to be the case.

Naturally, he went to the shared bedroom first, being very careful not to make noise as he nudged the door open. Lights off, shades closed, but... there was certainly a lump on Sebastian’s pillow. Clair probably. She was always so noisy about the bed, they had to make a rule about keeping her out at night when they were sleeping, or, 'sleeping'.

He approached the bed, hand out to pet her, and really that's about when his brain decided to process the rest of what was in front of him. He nested his hand very slowly on his sleeping cat's head, and waited as his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, just watching Sebastian breath, curled up it seemed into and even smaller ball than the cat on _his_ side of the bed. Clair probably put up a fight on that one, she always did like Hunter's pillow better. Except it seemed... to be what Sebastian might have been curled around? Hunter sat gently on the edge of the bed, Clair having woken up now, nuzzling into his side as he did so.

He thought about reaching out and shaking Sebastian, but if he hadn't heard him come into the apartment or into the room, especially because it was already a bit on in the day, he might either be really out of it, or really exhausted. Perhaps, Hunter guessed, even a combination of both. So, after picking Clair up and placing her, much to protest out in the living room sofa, Hunter removed his shoes, socks, and shirt before crawling into bed himself, even if it was a bit early for him as well as being the 'wrong' side of the bed. He just didn't want Sebastian to wake up alone tomorrow. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter wakes up, and Sebastian has some struggles.

Something heavy was on him, that's all Hunter thought until he tried to move, and... couldn't. He only felt the lump try and nest itself more into his chest and cling deeper into his sides to the point where if they had longer nails, they would have left a mark.

“You came back.” Hunter could just about hear Sebastian whisper against his skin, teeth nicking him in the process of speech.

Hunter wanted to roll his eyes, i _t was his apartment, of course he came back_. But, while his usual Sebastian could catch the sarcasm of that and turn it around on him to something much more deadly, Hunter wasn't sure if what he was used to expecting out of the other man was something he'd get at the present. And rather than risk saying anything at all, the wrong thing, or the right thing, or whatever, he just moved an arm as best as he could around Sebastian's lower back and pulled on him slightly. Oh, he couldn't bring him much physically closer than Sebastian had already brought him – unless they absorbed into each other – but. Touch was important now, more than usual. Hunter would have to get used to that too.

He wasn't exactly what most people would call affectionate.

“I told you to wait for me and I'd come back, and I did.”

They just stayed like that in silence for a while, Sebastian curled up around Hunter's body with all this long limbs, and Hunter left staring blankly at the ceiling's shades of black. What time of the morning was it anyway?

“Sebastian, I need to check my phone.”

And all he got was a whining noise.

“It'll only be a second, here.” And once Sebastian sat up enough for Hunter to move, he kept the edges of his fingers on the bottom of Sebastian's hand and he tried to find wherever his phone had gotten lost on top of the bedside table. And when he _did_ flick it on, the light almost blinding him in the process, he cringed a bit in reaction, looking back at Sebastian to be apologetic since he'd normally be annoyed at Hunter getting the phone light in his eyes while they were in bed, but.

And Hunter turned, hyper aware, and with an almost shocked face covered with realization, that he couldn't actually do that to Sebastian anymore. He felt something hollow come up in his throat, and wanted to drop the phone because of it, and instead was only meet with a blinking blue light and some numbers that read in clear white outline over a blue-tinted blurry photo of Sebastian trying to catch Clair jumping off the sofa, that it was three-four-four in the morning and he had no new pending messages.

And very, very carefully Hunter sat the phone on the edge of the table before wiggling himself back under the sheets and Sebastian. He wondered how many messages he'd ever have again if Sebastian never got his phone to work with him properly. He'd have to go back to voicemails. How archaic.

So many _how's..._

“I can hear you thinking.” Sebastian said, tapping in the side of his body he wasn't currently resting his face against. “Do you want to talk about it?”

And what Hunter heard under those words, so carefully spaced was, _is it about me?_

“I was thinking, but nothing you need to worry about.”

And so Sebastian wouldn't worry, or at least, be distracted enough not to worry in this exact moment, Hunter started to occupy himself with tracing circles on the other man's back. It was slightly unfair since Sebastian was, or seemed to be, wearing one of his shirts, and Hunter was already half-undressed, but Sebastian did always get cold more easily than he did, and he couldn't begrudge him trying to stay warm when he thought he'd be alone for the night.

….Or day?

“Little fox,” Hunter said, approaching territory he wasn't sure he should, though all Sebastian did was hum against his skin, “not that I mind it, but why were you already in bed when I came home?”

He felt Sebastian's nose rub against him, and part of what might have been a smile as he turned his head. “Says the man, who after coming home from being gone, goes right to sleep.”

“Hey, I was looking for my cat, and that wasn't the question.”

“Oh, I'm sure Clair is fine.”

“Not really, I tossed her into the living room.”

“She likes the knit blanket out there you got from your aunt well enough.”

“Yeah, but it's not the **bed** , stop changing the subject.”

And Hunter felt, Sebastian trying to escape from him, not just because he was rolling off him, but also because of the silence. Fine, he could let the subject rest for a while, they had until the morning. It wasn't that far past duskfall yet. And Hunter, reached over, and not grabbing Sebastian by any sort of force but rather just reaching up behind him... and tickling his stomach. Which cause him to wiggle, and wiggle a _lot._

“Unfair, Clarington, unfair...” Sebastian managed to get out in between shaken breaths, as he squirmed, but it wasn't a bad sort of squirming, Hunter would have let go if he honestly thought Sebastian was trying to get away – or _needed_ – to get away from him, but. He was also seeming to make an effort to wiggling himself into Hunter's body than away from it.

“Sorry,” Hunter said, leaning to Sebastian's ear, voice very low and quiet, dripping with amusement, “I can't hear you.”

“Oh shut up!” And Sebastian turned somewhat into him, and Hunter instinctively let his arms open slightly wider in order to accommodate Sebastian’s motion, as the other man twisted themselves back into Hunter's arms. “Sometimes I really hate your ass.” The words almost a whisper, but the amused kind that hid something fragile and comforting.

“Really? Because I could have _sworn...”_ Hunter's voice was bright with just the edge of laughter and teasing, before leaning down to steal a short kiss, “that you really, really didn't.”

The only thing he heard though, was Sebastian breath the word “ _Unfair_.” again against his skin, and that worried him slightly. Apparently he wasn't really going to be as playful as Hunter thought.

“Sebastian...” Hunter said, nudging the side of the other's face with nose, “I didn't mean to hurt you if I did.”

“You didn't, I'm just –“ And he heard Sebastian take a sharp breath before turning his face away, “Whatever, it's not important.”

_Yes it is._ But Hunter couldn't say it like that, not straight on and direct, and drag it out into the light where they could bother to inspect it properly. No, he had to be more sneaky than that. He had his ideas of course, but making a wrong move at this point could spell disaster for who knew how long. And Hunter reach around a little, tracing the outline of one of Sebastian's arms, all the way down to his hand, before gently, just gently enough to guide it, to his own face. “I'm right here, ok? Whenever you want to talk about it. If you ever think it turns out to **be** important to tell me.” He wasn't going to pressure Sebastian to share when he wasn't ready, or turn to deal with demons that must be far to different for him to deal with now.

The sitting wasn't uncomfortable to Hunter at least, Sebastian was in his lap more or less, tracing the inside of his eyes with the edges of his thumb, and they were both warm and safe and together. And that's all Hunter wanted right now. The rest, maybe, could come with time. 


End file.
